Anyone who has watched Notre Dame play the sport of basketball over the past five years knows how utterly surprising that sentence is. Early in his career, Cooley was a body. That was basically it. Even better, he was a body that looked exactly like much-more-famous former Notre Dame star Luke Harangody. Cooley was a body and a novelty. Now Cooley is a capable interior scorer, a dominant offensive rebounder, a Big East POY candidate and, yes, a vocal leader on a team expected to push Louisville and Syracuse at the top of the 2012-13 Big East.

Even Notre Dame coach Mike Brey is shocked -- his word, not mine -- at this development:

"I'm shocked, and so pleased, to see the maturity of this guy," coach Mike Brey said. "His teammates were down on him as a young guy because there were days he didn't want to do it. Now his teammates respect him. When he says something, they're going to listen to him. I never thought we'd get to that point. That was not a goal. I just wanted him to be serious about him."